A leak suggests that the Kirin 990 SoC might arrive as early as Q1 2019. The chipset is rumored to not only be 10% more powerful than the current Kirin 980 SoC but is also speculated to be 10% more power efficient.

What the heart is to a human being, a chipset is to a smartphone! The chipset or popularly known as the SoC is extremely crucial to a smartphone. It’s what basically drives the device and helps it function properly. Currently, there are three major players in the smartphone SoC market; Qualcomm, HiSilicon, and Exynos. The Kirin 970 was one of the major game-changers for Huawei. In fact, owing to the popularity of the Kirin 970, the company decided to release the Kirin 980 with quite a few improvements. If you thought that was good, think again, because a new leak which has just surfaced online suggests that the Kirin 990 might just be a few months away from making an appearance.

Leak Suggests Kirin 990 To Launch In Q1 2019 With Support For 5G

Rumor has it that Huawei has already started working on its next-generation chipset, the Kirin 990. The Kirin 990 is the successor to the Kirin 980 and will be the very first 7nm chipset. The SoC is expected to release in Q1 2019. That’s actually quite fast considering that the Kirin 980 SoC made its debut just a month back with the Mate 20 series of smartphones. The Kiri 980 is presently being used in the Huawei Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, Mate 20 RS Porsche Design, Mate 20X, and the Honor Magic 2. Given the raw power and performance of the Kirin 980 SoC, the Kirin 990 chipset definitely looks extremely promising.

In all probability, the company will be very reluctant to share its new technology and chipset with other smartphone manufacturers. Well, it made itself clear on reserving the Kirin 980 chipset only for its own brand of smartphones and the same is likely to be seen with the upcoming Kirin 990 SoC. The cost of testing the Kirin 990 SoC at the moment is quite expensive. Each test requires an investment of at least 200 million Yuan. As of now, the one thing we know about the upcoming chipset is that it will be based on the 7nm manufacturing process and will support 5G networks, owing to its Balong 5000 5G modem. Just for reference, the Kirin 980 SoC, like that of the Kirin 970 SoC is based on the 10nm manufacturing process.

What To Expect From The Kirin 990 SoC

Apart from the fact that it will be equipped with the Balong 5000 5G modem to support 5G networks, the chipset is definitely going to be more powerful than the Kirin 980. However, what really matters is the margin by which the performance increases with the new chipset. As of now, it is expected that the Kirin 990 would be 10% better than the Kirin 980 as well as 10% more power efficient. So, what does this exactly translate to? Well, first off, it would allow the CPU to be clocked higher with lower operating temperatures. If this actually happens, power consumption will be lowered and the smartphone would have better battery life.

Battery life is one of the most crucial factors in today’s day and age and will only become more important in time considering how reliant people are on smartphones. It’s still too early to say how the Kirin 990 will actually perform.

Jason is one of our latest additions to the team. Apart from being a high school teacher, Jason is passionate about technology. His love for it stems from his enthusiasm for computers and mobile phones. The best way of manifesting this is through his interesting and captivating articles. Jason has worked with some of the known tech blogs like MobileScout. He has an expertise when it comes to smartphones, software, hardware, and apps.